Anna Buchheim, Univ. Prof. Dr. biol. hum. Dipl. Psych., Psychoanalyst (DPV, IPA, DGPT), Full Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Innsbruck

1988-1994 Studies of Psychology at the University of Regensburg (focus: Clinical Psychology), 2000 PhD at the University of Ulm. 2008 Habilitation and venia legendi in psychosomatic medicine, psychotherapy and medical psychology at the University of Ulm. Since March 2008 Chair of Clinical Psychology at the University of Innsbruck.

Since March 2017 Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science.

Vice-President of the "Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Therapie von Persönlichkeitsstörungen (GePs) e.V.", visiting professor at the International Psychoanalytical University Berlin. Co-editor of the journal "Persönlichkeitsstörungen - Theorie und Therapie", Editorial Board in the journal Psychopathology,

Chief Editor of the Special Issues Neurosience of Human Attachment in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience.

Awards/Fellowships: René-Spitz-DPV-Nachwuchspreis" 2000, Research Award of the DGPPN 2002, "Adolf-Ernst-Meyer Preis für Psychotherapieforschung" of the DKPM Magdeburg 2006, Fellowship at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Delmenhorst 2006, Paper-Award of the American Psychoanalytic Association, New York September 2013, Marie Curie Fellowship Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies (FRIAS) 2017-2018;

Research focus: Clinical Attachment Research, Transgenerational Research of Attachment Trauma, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Research, Neurosciences

Current book publications: 
Buchheim (2018) Attachment research and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht;
Buchheim A (2016) Attachment and Exploration. Their significance in the clinical and psychotherapeutic context, Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart;
Gaschler K, Buchheim A (Eds) (2012) Children need closeness. Gehirn und Geist & Schattauer Verlag, Stuttgart;
Leuzinger-Bohleber M, Roth G, Buchheim A (Eds) (2007) Psychoanalysis, Neurobiology, Trauma. Schattauer Publishing House, Stuttgart

Attachment Research and Borderline-Personality Disorders

Attachment theory provides a comprehensive framework for a deeper understanding the links between close relationships, mental representations of attachment, and psychopathology and its neural correlates. The concept of adult attachment status covers a specific aspect of personality and measures an individual’s current representational state with respect to early attachment relationships and their associated modes of defenses and affect regulation. In this talk, the major contributions of attachment theory and research for the understanding Borderline Personality Disorders (BPD) will be reviewed by introducing valid interview measures to assess mental representations of attachment and mentalization capacity in adults. Second a model of BPD that integrates both attachment and neural correlates, with a focus on the significance of the lack of resolution of loss and trauma in patients with BPD will be presented. Finally, findings from randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that demonstrated significant changes of attachment representations and mentalization capacity in BPD patients during psychotherapy will be discussed.